Rakshasa’s fists continued to pound into the limp body of the tentacle kaiju.
At that point, it was clear the GODBREAKER was letting off steam more than anything. The monster had long ceased to fight back, and was almost certainly dead in his hands.
But still he continued his assault, throwing punch after punch into the pink purple blob of monster flesh, releasing a beastial growl with each one.
Rocky had tried a few more times to speak with him, but the GODBREAKER couldn’t hear anything at that point other than the explosive impact that resonated from each of his strikes. He had become entranced in the rhythm of the barrage, and it had become somewhat therapeutic.
His disgust at the kaiju’s very existence. His annoyance at all of the gargoyle’s antics. His frustration at being stuffed into that key he wore around his neck, unable to move of his own volition. His rage at the mystery surrounding his own existence; how he’d fallen from god to a toy piloted by a mortal.
For a moment, he considered ending the beatdown, releasing the grip one of his hands had locked the monster into, but he almost immediately recanted that idea, instead choosing to swing the limp body against the ground over and over again.
Each slam of the tentacle kaiju’s body against the ground sent ripples through the earth, spraying grass and soil into the heavens. And each one sent a surge of satisfaction coursing through Rakshasa’s soul, compelling him to do it even harder.
* * * *
ULTRA ROCK
* * * *
Rocky let out a sigh, sinking back into the pilot’s seat. He’d long grown bored of the fight, but Rakshasa clearly wasn’t interested in listening to his complaints and stopping any time soon.
He’d tried mashing on the console (which he was still almost completely unfamiliarized with), hoping to find some kind of override to take control back from the mech, but to no avail. All he’d really managed to do was change the color of the lighting within the cockpit to an admittedly nice tone of blue, and to turn on the windshield wipers. He also found that he couldn’t put the mech into sleep mode, and the key wouldn’t budge within the ignition.
And so, resigned to letting the mech brutalize the kaiju, Rocky kicked his feet up onto the console and closed his eyes to get some rest. The minute he’d done so, though, a flicker of static hit his ears, and a video feed appeared on one of the computer screens embedded in the console. “Mister Roran? Can you hear me?”
Rocky leaned forward in his chair, looking over at the video feed. He’d never actually seen anything pop up before on the monitor before, so the new experience immediately enthralled him. It was Carmine, flanked by a few of her usual militiamen. “Yo! What’s up?”
“The kaiju is channeling mirror particles; you need to either finish it off now, or get away from it.”
The gargoyle tilted his head. “‘Mirror particles’? What’s that?”
Carmine’s brow furrowed. “ULTRA Force particles of the mirror attribute.”
“Huh?”
“Are you not aware of-?” she shook her head, knowing they weren’t afforded much time for a lecture. “The kaiju is storing the power of your attacks and is going to throw it back at you. Be ready.”
Rocky lifted his head up from the screen, directing his eyes out through the windshield and into the kaiju as Rakshasa returned to good ol’ fashioned punches. “You….sure about that? Pretty sure that thing’s already dead. Rak’s been wailing on it for awhile and it hasn’t moved.”
“I’m positive. I read its force frequency.”
“What are you talkin’-?”
The kaiju’s mouth suddenly spread wide open, and a blast of blue light exploded from within it.
* * * *
ULTRA ROCK
* * * *
All of the observing militiamen (other than Carmine) winced as the blast of light hit the red mech dead in the face.
Carmine watched the mech fly backwards hundreds of feet. A massive plume of smoke completely enshrouded its upper body, obfuscating the severity of the damage the attack had dealt.
As the mech hit the floor, one of its two upper arms snapped right off, having mostly been ripped from the torso as a result of the kaiju’s blast.
The kaiju returned to active movement once again, slithering all over the surface of the fallen mech’s body, like a predator scanning any lingering signs of life within its prey. From the energetic way it wormed around, one would be completely incapable of telling that the beast had just been the victim of an onslaught of fists just moments before.
With a scowl etching itself onto her face, Captain Carmine turned away, mentally crumpling up any notions she’d had about the defensive capabilities of the mech and preparing to toss them into the proverbial fire.
That is, until a hideous roar bellowed out from within the mech, strong enough to reach Redvein, shattering windows and curdling the blood of all its citizens.
* * * *
ULTRA ROCK
* * * *
Rocky’s vision had been completely encased in the dark smoke emanating from the heavily-damaged cockpit, but the instant Rakshasa let out his tremendous howl, the smoke vanished, as though it had been intimidated into inexistence.
A chunk of Rakshasa’s face had been completely blasted off by the kaiju’s attack, ridding the GODBREAKER of his right eye, and giving Rocky an unobstructed view of the sky above.
The gargoyle’s instinct told him to escape from the cockpit through this newfound opening whilst the mech remained at ground level, but he found himself unable to physically pull himself up. Was this some sort of effect of Rakshasa’s scream?
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Rocky suddenly lurched forward, flying across the cockpit and smashing up against the windshield. Rakshasa had seemingly pushed himself back onto his feet; not in a smooth, natural motion, but by slamming his fists into the earth and propelling himself upward through the force.
[WRETCHED ANIMAL….]
The GODBREAKER turned to face the tentacle kaiju, situated just a small distance in front of him. The pink blob beast’s tentacles scurried and twirled around in random motions, but the core remained still, as though it were patiently observing the mech.
Rocky stumbled as he felt Rakshasa strike his own stomach, sending a ripple throughout the interior of his mech body.
[WRETCHED HUSK….]
The blue skies above then began to redden, and the clouds darken; an inversion of their usual palette in mere seconds.
“Rak….? What’s goin’ on?”
And from the now-blackened clouds fell bloody rain and crimson blades of lightning, scorching the grassland until it, too, had been painted black with soot. Fissures opened in the ground, spreading outward from Rakshasa’s feet, crafting a chaotic spider web of cracks beneath him.
The GODBREAKER threw his remaining three arms out to the sides, and screamed into the sky, his voice managing to overpower the storming drums of thunder exploding around him.
[WREEEEEETCHEEEEEED PLAAAAAANEEEEEEEEEEET!]
In an instant, Rakshasa was in the kaiju’s face, slamming his damaged skull right into the beast’s bulbous flesh. He paid no heed to Rocky’s safety, and the gargoyle nearly fell right out of the cockpit from the sudden strike.
The kaiju stumbled backward, no doubt continuing to absorb the impact of Rakshasa’s attacks through its mirror particles. None of the mech’s physical strikes would harm it, and that appeared to be all the mech was capable of, from what the kaiju had observed.
But of course, that was not all that Rakshasa had in his arsenal.
Rakshasa grabbed hold of the kaiju in one hand while pulling another back. In the rear hand’s palm, a torrent of glowing red energy coalesced into a ball, which he then proceeded to jam right into the kaiju’s face.
The ball exploded on contact, tearing off chunks of the kaiju’s body, along with one of its tentacles. This time, the beast screeched in agony, flying backward from the force of the impact.
Rakshasa chased after the monster, creating two more red energy balls in his palms as his massive metal feet thundered against the floor. The kaiju tried to use its tentacles to defend itself and hold the mech’s arms at bay, but Rakshasa’s third arm managed to grip hold of just enough of them to give himself an opening.
Again he slammed the red energy ball into the monster, and once more it tore into the kaiju’s flesh, sending meat and pink blood in a spray behind it.
By now, the kaiju sensed its imminent defeat, and began its frantic retreat back into the ocean, crawling along the ground like a spider attempting to avoid being squashed.
There would be no avoiding a squash for this spider.
While the kaiju had done well for itself in rapidly putting distance between itself and Rakshasa, the GODBREAKER was more than ready to give chase. He would not let this wretched creature live for much longer, and he would not allow those few remaining moments of life to be anything more than agonizing.
Rakshasa leaped high into the air, and dropped back down at a sharp angle, feet-first. The bottom of his right foot clapped against the top of the kaiju’s blob body, distorting its shape as it squished it into the ground below.
Again the kaiju wailed in pain, half-buried into the ground from the force of the stomp.
Rakshasa’s hands began to grab hold of one tentacle at a time, viciously ripping each one out from the kaiju’s body before angrily swiping it across the beast’s body, drawing blood with each strike before tossing the dead limb away.
When the kaiju had been robbed of all of its limbs, Rakshasa immediately transitioned into another barrage of punches. Fortunately for him, the kaiju had been too weakened to continue absorbing damage through its mirror-attribute ULTRA Force particles, but even if it hadn’t, Rakshasa likely would not have cared. The GODBREAKER was in a frenzy that could not be stopped, seeking only to brutalize the monster even more than he had tried to earlier in the fight.
Each of Rakshasa’s punches buried the monster deeper and deeper into the earth, splattering pink blood across its body, his own frame, and the landscape around them.
And then, seemingly ready to end the fight at long last, Rakshasa lifted his face to the sky. Another horrendous roar came flying out, accompanied by a red glow of light within the confines of his sculpted metal jaws.
This red light began to pulse and surge as it collected power, practically throwing out lightning bolts of its own in all directions. The GODBREAKER aimed his face back down to the kaiju, which had long since stopped moving, barely clinging onto life.
The light in Rakshasa’s jaws exploded directly into the kaiju, starting as a laser and quickly transforming into a massive beam that turned the monster to dust, and continued past where its body had been, engaging in a massive deep-dive into the earth.
The beam continued exploding out from Rakshasa’s mouth long after the monster had been obliterated. But eventually, its terrifying power began to wane, reduced from a gigantic beam to a stream, to a spray, to a splash, and then nothing.
* * * *
ULTRA ROCK
* * * *
In about an hour’s time, the sky had returned to its normal hue. Rakshasa had seemingly calmed down, though he hadn’t spoken a word. He’d even relinquished control over his body, which took Rocky several moments to realize.
The gargoyle manually piloted the mech back to the Rosso Woods, settling it into its prior docking location. He’d tried a few times to start a conversation with Rakshasa, but to no avail.
As he departed the mech, he found himself face-to-face with Captain Carmine and her squad. The woman bowed her head. “Thank you once again for your heroic efforts in protecting Redvein. I am further in your debt, Mister Roran.”
“Ah, don’t mention it,” Rocky responded, his voice lacking in its usual bounce. “I’m, uh, gonna head back to town.”
“Of course. Would you like to be escorted by hoverbike again?”
“Nah, I’ll….I’ll just walk this time.”
Nodding, Carmine motioned for her squad to spread out and open a path for Rocky to cross. “I’ll have my men get to work repairing your mech as best we can.”
“Yeah, uh, thanks….”
The militiamen watched as the gargoyle began to stroll back towards town. When he was out of sight, Carmine turned her attention towards the mech.
It had somehow managed to become even more frightening in appearance with the damage that had been done to it in the fight. Its angry, monstrous face was mostly still intact, but the massive hole that had been blasted in one of its eyes seemed to amplify its bestial aura; a scar that told a deadly tale all on its own. Even those who hadn’t witnessed the mech’s display of power in the fight against the kaiju would recognize its fury with damage like that.
Carmine ordered her men to get to work on repairing the mech as best they could, though some of them had warned her that they were unfamiliar with a lot of the technology that had been used to build the thing; they’d never seen a mech like it before.
“Analyze it as well as you can, then,” she stated. “Don’t damage it; we’ll need it should any more kaiju appear. Figure out how it works, and report back to me.”
As the captain turned to leave, a squad of engineers made their way to the mech, activating various Installs such as Eye, Supercharge, and Machine in order to help their work.
“The rest of you are with me,” Carmine continued. “Get us to the shore. Both kaiju appeared from the same stretch of ocean; I want that area scouted thoroughly. Set up defensive traps around the shore as well, and restrict civilians from getting near it.”
The militiamen all scrambled into position, with one bringing up a vehicle to carry them all to the shore. Just before climbing into the car, Carmine looked back over her shoulder, staring directly into the furious eye of the mech.
The red fire particles within her heart flickered, and for a brief moment, a strange sensation scraped at the back of her mind. It was a gut feeling, a hunch, perhaps a paranoia, that maybe….the mech had actually been staring right back at her the entire time.
She narrowed her eyes, then stepped into the car, shutting the door.